Memphis: Day One

“There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth: not going all the way, and not starting.” — The Buddha

Today my first classes begin at the University of Memphis. I’m taking Statistics I and IT Trends. I did fine in statistics as an undergraduate, and I have a pretty good support system when it comes to statistics, so I’m not as worried about that as I’ve heard some people get. And having done a Master’s in educational technology, I’m not exactly terrified about an IT course for educators either.

Speaking of educational technology, it looks like Memphis uses Desire2Learn as their LMS. It’s one of the few systems I haven’t seen before, and I suppose it’s okay. It seems to run extremely slowly, but in fairness there’s a notice saying they’re aware of it and are working on it, so there’s hope that won’t be a constant situation.

Even though it’s a distance learning program, all of my classmates who have introduced themselves so far today seem to be from Memphis, and most of them work for the University itself. I suppose that’s not surprising since it’s a new program, and it will take a little time for most people in the wider world to hear about it. Even though I keep my ear to the ground on these things, I only heard about it by chance.

Having read both courses’ syllabi, the most daunting thing will likely be the twenty page term paper for IT trends. I’m hoping that my experience in the field will help on this a lot, though, and that I can even turn this into an opportunity to do something publishable, or even start with something that might be relevant to a dissertation topic later.

2 Comments

I am from West TN. but definitely not from Memphis. I found that since this is a new program some of the students who live in Memphis want to bring the group together for discusssions. Of course, that is not possible for me, and I know that there are some others in the EDD HIAD program who live away from Memphis.
Look forward to our class together.

Hi Dale, sorry for the bad assumption about Memphis vs. West Tennessee. I figured that since Memphis was the westernmost city in Tennessee that maybe “West Tennessee” referred to its greater metropolitan area, the same way that my area, “Northern Virginia”, refers to that part of Virginia that’s a commuting distance of Washington, D.C. That’s what I get for being from far far away!